Clockwork of Life
by Flowers for the Cynic
Summary: Sakura, Sasuke, & Naruto have been friends for as long as they could remember. With a friendship built on a desire to protect each other & a promise of honesty, they were Team 7 and high school wasn't going to change that. But over the years, Sakura has harbored one secret because to her, revealing the truth would be the same as hurting her precious people. AU. OC.


**DISCLAIMER: All Naruto characters belong to Kishimoto. Only the OCs belong to me.**

Summary: Sakura, Sasuke, & Naruto have been friends for as long as they could remember. With a friendship built on a desire to protect each other & a promise of honesty, they were Team 7 and high school wasn't going to change that. But over the years, Sakura has harbored one secret because to her, revealing the truth would be the same as hurting her precious people. AU.

Author's Note: Hello everyone! Let me start by introducing myself. I am Flowers for the Cynic, or Cynic for short. This is my first fan fiction, but not my first fictional story. I'm not yet sure about pairings, but hopefully mid-story (somewhere far down the long road of chapters), I will be able to figure out what pairings will be used (if any at all). I hope none of you are particularly adverse to a specific pairing because Sakura can basically be paired with most of the characters for me. So...there are so many possibilities in that sense. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I don't even know if there's going to be pairings at all.

Anyways, this is also under the Drama genre but that's more for future chapters. Rated T but also for future chapters. I have a few OCs and some minor OOCs, which is expected since this is AU.

Happy reading!

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><p><span>Clockwork of Life<span>

CHAPTER 1:

"Sakura-chan…Sakura-chan…"

She tried to ignore the voice attempting to rouse her from sleep but when she felt the light shaking of her shoulders, she groaned and opened her eyes just enough to see the person crouching beside her bed.

"Five more minutes," Sakura said but before she had the chance to fall back to sleep, she was unwillingly tugged into a sitting position.

"Ne, Sakura-chan. We both know that you actually mean half an hour when you ask for five more minutes."

Giving up on the possibility of returning to sleep, Sakura rub her eyes with a fist and blinked several times to clear her hazy vision. Tilting her head to the side dazedly, she finally looked up to the person in her bedroom.

"Nii…" Sakura whined.

Haruno Murasaki smiled at his still sleepy little sister. He shook his head before she could wheedle him into doing her bidding. If Sakura got her way, they'd both be sleeping till noon.

"It's your first day of high school. Do you really want to be late today? Naruto and Sasuke are going to be worried if you don't show up at the front gates to meet up with them."

Sakura grunted, a sad attempt to copy the famous Uchiha grunt from one of her dearest childhood friends. Blowing the hair that had fallen into her face, she peeked at her older brother between pink strands.

Unlike herself, Haruno Murasaki did not share the pink-haired gene that she had inherited. Instead, his hair was the palest of lilacs, sometimes appearing white when under bright light. With some of the tips barely brushing the top of his shoulders, Murasaki rarely pulled his hair back. Besides their hair color – somehow they both ended up with odd colors – they both possessed the fair skin and viridian eyes that Harunos were known to have.

Smiling down at Sakura, her brother placed a big hand atop her head and ruffled her hair. "Go get changed. I'll make breakfast, okay?"

Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun sometimes mentioned that her brother could look intimidating, if not downright terrifying. She had no idea what they were talking about. Just look at her brother! He was smiling and offering to make her breakfast. Then again, Kiba and Shikamaru had said something very similar, and even the very polite Neji had once murmured in agreement. Her brother couldn't be that scary, right?

Shrugging internally, Sakura figured she'd ask Ino who had never once mentioned anything about her brother being anything but nice. Maybe she'd even ask Hinata and Tenten.

But for now Sakura tucked the question away. With a nod of her head, she watched her brother walk out of the room.

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><p>"Sasu-chan!"<p>

Uchiha Sasuke could only groan in exasperation as Uchiha Mikoto straightened the blue necktie of his uniform. Honestly, he was a high school student already. He didn't need his mother to fuss over his clothes anymore. Sasuke had declared as much but it seemed that Mikoto had no qualms about ignoring her youngest son's protests.

"Now, stay still, Sasu-chan," Mikoto said before moving to fix Sasuke's hair. His hair flattened for a good half second before popping back up into what Naruto liked to call a chicken's ass.

When his mother sighed and looked prepared to lick her fingers to plaster his hair down, Sasuke intervened.

"Kaa-san," he said with a pointed look towards his mother. Mikoto pouted but stopped in her actions.

"You boys are growing up so fast," Mikoto commented with a nostalgic smile. "Too fast actually." Looking near tears, she added, "First Itachi-kun, and now he's at a university. He even moved out of the compound." Endearment at the mention of her first son flashed across her face coupled by the tiniest amount of betrayal at the fact that said first son had dared leave the nest and therefore, the mother. "And now you're off to high school and next thing you'll be married and I'll finally have those grandchildren I've always wanted."

Sasuke felt the tips of his ears burn with the sudden excess flow of blood. "Married? Grandchildren? Kaa-san! Itachi's older! You should be asking him for grandchildren."

A knowing smile shared by all mothers of the world pasted itself onto Mikoto's face. "Sasu-chan. Your brother doesn't even have a girlfriend. I'm not even sure if he has any female friends. But you on the other hand," she poked a finger to his chest, "you at least have Sakura-chan. Your father and I have long since acknowledged that you'll probably be our best shot at grandchildren."

Even his tou-san believed all that? Minutely, Sasuke gulped. "Sakura and I aren't even dating. We're just friends."

"For now," Mikoto proclaimed with finality.

Sighing, Sasuke attempted to shift the conversation back to a topic that involved fewer…children. "Besides, aniki visits every week. Twice a week even."

"I know," Mikoto conceded with a smile. "Now," she clapped her hands together. "Shoo. Go to school. You don't want to be late. Sakura-chan and Naruto-kun won't like that at all."

He shook his head at his mother because most of the time she really didn't act like an Uchiha at all.

Kissing her on the cheek, Sasuke grabbed his bag from the ground and moved to depart.

On his way to the door, he caught sight of a photo hanging from the wall. There were a lot of photos of him, Sakura, and the dobe around the house. After all, they did grow up together. But this particular photo was what one could call "the official photo." Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were all wearing custom made shirts several sizes too large (the dobe had said that they needed room to grow into someday) with the words Team 7 printed boldly in the front.

Team 7. It was a childhood attempt to seem special as if they belonged to some private group that was unattainable except to the three of them. But for all its childishness, the name had stuck all the way to today.

Smirking because Uchihas did not smile, Sasuke grunted. "Hn."

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><p>"Na-ru-to!"<p>

Said boy gulped in fear as he watched his mother stalk around the kitchen with a frying pan in hand. A very dangerous looking frying pan. With her red hair seemingly floating around her, Uzumaki Kushina was someone to be feared when crossed.

And poor Naruto was currently the target of Kushina's rage. He had woken up late and without enough time to cook a fresh batch of ramen, he had tossed the leftovers from last night into the microwave. Leftovers with a spoon inside. A metal spoon. And the clueless Naruto had left the kitchen thinking that nothing was amiss with the food and the microwave. Until, of course, he smelled something akin to burning quickly followed by a small explosion.

Whoops?

Uzumaki Kushina was not amused at all.

"Now, Naruto-kun." Shaking with fear, Naruto turned around to face his father, Minato, who looked worried but nowhere near as scared as him. "Why don't you head on to school already and I'll try to…calm your mother down without destroying our home in the process."

Nodding quickly and thankfully, Naruto barely breathed out, "Arigato, tou-san." Running to his room to retrieve his backpack and get the hell out of the house, Naruto was almost out of his room's door when he caught sight of something that had taken residence on his desk for a very long time.

"Na-ru-to!"

Swallowing loudly, Naruto ran out the house faster than anyone could say "two more bowls of ramen."

He could look at the official Team 7 picture afterschool. Or maybe he didn't need to look at it. He would see Sakura-chan and the teme soon enough.

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><p>Sakura walked into the kitchen just in time as her brother set down a plate of food on the counter. Her long pink hair had been brushed tangle-free and she now wore the uniform of her high school. A pleated blue skirt and a crisp white blouse with a sailor-style collar the same shade of blue as her skirt. In the same colors, her brother wore pants and a top with a blue necktie.<p>

She hadn't even realized she had finished her breakfast already until she felt herself being lifted under the arms and plucked from her seat.

"Nii?" she asked.

Haruno Sakura was short. She was the shortest amongst her friends, a full head shorter than either Sasuke-kun or Naruto-kun. People often like to pick her up for some inane reason but she supposed that it came with the territory. She stopped getting annoyed some time ago, but then again, she never really got annoyed when her older brother did it.

But despite her shortness, her brother was extremely tall, taller than any of her friends. Exactly the reason why he was on the basketball team.

"Daydreaming already?" Murasaki joked. "You're supposed to save that for class time when the sensei is really boring."

"I don't sleep in class," she said proudly.

"I know." Putting her down, Murasaki ruffled his little sister's hair fondly.

"Maybe I can pretend to be a first year and go to class with you instead," Murasaki said.

"Iie. I'll be alright. Besides, you're in the same high school except you're a third year already."

"I bet you could test out and come join me in my third year classes," Murasaki suggested playfully. Though Sakura could hint just a smidge of seriousness.

Sakura knew she was smart, but she wasn't sure if even she could test out of two years worth of material. Maybe if she studied hard beforehand. Shikamaru certainly could do it without studying at all.

"Nii…I'll be fine. I promise." Her brother was always so worried about her.

"I know." Murasaki hung his head in defeat. "But I can't stop worrying. It's a big campus." Huffing, he finished, "Why don't you get your bag and we can go."

Hopping off the tall stool, she walked to her room to do just as her brother had said.

She stopped to stare at a picture hanging above her study table. Team 7.

They had been no more than four years old at the time the picture had been taken but they had been friends ever since. Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun were as close to being her family as her big brother. Team 7 had two of her most precious people in it and they all knew each other like the back of their hands. "We protect each other and we tell each other everything. No lies, no secrets," Naruto had once said.

"By the way, did you take your medicine already?" the voice of her brother jolted her out of the nostalgia as he popped his head into her room.

Flashing him a smile, she answered, "Hai!"

"Do you remember what the doctor said?" he reminded.

"Of course, nii."

Because Team 7 may have been her family and they may have promised to be forever honest with each other, but Sakura had one secret that very few outside the Harunos knew about. And neither Sasuke-kun nor Naruto-kun was one of those few people.

But it wasn't because she didn't trust them, it wasn't because she didn't cherish their promise, and it surely wasn't because she didn't love them.

She kept this one secret exactly because she loved them. They didn't need to know that she had seen the inside walls of a hospital more times than she could count with all the fingers of her two hands. They didn't need to know that she took medicine around the clock. They didn't need to worry that something was wrong with one of their bestfriends.

She wouldn't purposely hurt them when she could keep them happy by being silent about this one secret. No. She wouldn't hurt her precious people by telling them the truth.

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><p>Author's Note: I'll do my best to update regularly and as written on my bio: I accept all of your lovely ratings and reviews in lieu of the flowers that none of you will be able to give me. Unless somehow you've all developed an ability to magically make flowers appear on my doorstep...I will take those too.<p> 


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